In a general vehicle, an accelerator pedal, a brake pedal and a clutch pedal, which are manipulated by the foot of the driver, are mounted at a dash panel disposed beneath a driver seat.
Meanwhile, when a crash or rear-end collision accident occurs, thereby causing an engine compartment to collapse by impact force generated due to the accident, there may be a problem in that the leg of the driver may be injured by a pedal apparatus.
In order to prevent such a problem, technologies for preventing rearward thrust of pedals (thrust toward a driver seat) and rearward rotation of pedals (rotation toward the driver seat) through additional application of separate constructions (a pedal arm-side stopper, a cowl cross bar-side stopper, etc.) has been developed.
However, most conventional technologies have drawbacks of an increase in the number of elements, an increase in weight, and an increase in cost due to additional application of separate constructions in addition to elements constituting a pedal apparatus.
In particular, upon oblique offset collision, thrust of a pedal proceeds from a front lower position to a rear upper position in an inclined direction in a state in which the pedal is offset by a certain angle. When such an oblique offset collision occurs, the cowl cross bar-side stopper in a conventional cantilever structure cannot effectively suppress rearward thrust of a pedal arm and, as such, there may be a drawback in that injury of the driver leg caused by the pedal cannot be surely prevented.
The above matters disclosed in this section are merely for enhancement of understanding of the general background of the invention and should not be taken as an acknowledgement or any form of suggestion that the matters form the related art already known to a person skilled in the art.